Just in time for the weekend, Filling Stations is a weekly post that highlights one of Los Angeles’ destinations for craft beer, be it a bottle-shop with a great selection, a restaurant with great food to go with their beer list, or a bar serving excellent beers.

Stone Brewing Company Store – Pasadena

• Neighborhood: Pasadena View Larger Map
• Type: Bottle Shop and Tap Room
• Yelp Page
• Selection: 4/5 Price: 3/5 Staff: 5/5

After sixteen years of brewing some of the countries more arrogant and edgy ales in Escondido Stone Brewing Co has invaded LA! The brewery’s first Company Store tap-room and retail location to open outside of sunny San Diego is open for business! Wash out those growlers and hit the gold line!

The fourth Company Store is located just steps away from the Del Mar Metro station, and just a couple of blocks away from Colorado Blvd and bustling Old Town Pasadena. We’ve talked about the space opening for a few months, and we previewed the location during LA Beer Week (here’s our gallery), but now the tap-room is officially open for business!

Like the other Stone Company Stores the Pasadena location offers up to 20 taps of Stone’s brews. Everything from their all-year beers to the special seasonal releases to extra special limited variants, one-offs, and collaborations. You can belly up to the bar for a pint or goblet of the beers or you can fill a growler to take home and enjoy.

Growler fills are available for the year-round releases any time, and the store fill offer regular “special growler fills” of the more limited releases. Check out their calendar to see what special fills are coming up. Several different growlers are available to purchase in-store: a 1-liter bail-top bottle that’s great for their higher ABV beers, the standard 2-liter bail-top jug, and a unique 40oz stainless steel bottle from Kleen Kanteen. Fills cost $5-$9 for the 1L growlers and $10-$17 for the 2L jug depending on which beer you choose.

The store also has a cooler that’s stocked with some great hard to find treats. One of the few places to score a bottle from the Quingenti Millilitre series. These 500ml cork-finished bottles are filled with “most special beers [Stone] have to offer, bottled for the first time ever in very limited quantities.” They can be pricey, but how else can you try Bourbon Barrel Aged Old Guardian?

In addition to the booze, the store has a wide variety of apparel  Stone Brewing has one of the widest selection of logo’d gear, and the shop sells everything from hats to socks. There is also a wide selection of glassware, accessories (the belt buckle is always a big hit), and even some food-products and soaps (Don’t miss the mustards; they’re great.)

Sandwiched between craft beer hot spots Lucky Baldwins and Congregation Alehouse the new tap room makes the Old Town neighborhood  which is also home to Haven Gastropub and Brewery and Kings Row Gastropub, the perfect place for a leisurely beer-crawl. The proximity to the Gold Line station is gravy on the awesome-pie, and there are a lot of craft beer geeks west of the 5 that are suddenly going to be spending a lot more time in Pasadena. Us included!

Have you had a chance to visit the Stone Company Store yet? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments.